"We teach children to look to God in faith and to care for their neighbor in love by means of the Six Chief Parts and the Seven Liberal Arts."
The first part of this definition is drawn from Luther's post-communion collect. It represents the two tables of the Law ("Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul strength and mind . . . and love your neighbor as yourself"), but it does so in the context of Word and Sacraments, the means by which the Lord enables His people both "to will and to do according to His good pleasure," (Philippians 2:13). Where there is forgiveness, there is life and salvation.
The second part of the definition refers to the six chief parts of Luther's Small Catechism (The Ten Commandments, The Apostles' Creed, The Lord's Prayer, Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion) and the seven liberal arts (Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, and Music).
Our intention is not that you have to try to remember this definition, but rather that you won't be able to forget it.


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"I shall say nothing here about the pure pleasure a man gets from having studied, even though he never holds an office of any kind, how at home by himself he can read all kinds of things, talk and associate with educated people, and travel and do business in foreign lands; for there are perhaps very few people who are moved by this pleasure." -- Martin Luther
"It is not many books that make men learned, nor even reading. But it is a good book frequently read, no matter how small it is, that makes a man learned in the Scriptures and godly." -- Martin Luther
"St. Paul enjoins his disciple Titus that he should properly instruct and govern all classes, young and old, men and women [Titus 2:1-10]. But today everybody just does as he likes. Unfortunately it has come to such a sorry pass that those places where something good should be taught have become schools for scoundrels, and nobody takes any interest in the high-spirited youth at all." -- Martin Luther